Invaluable resources every artist and musician should check out!

With the vast amounts of information and knowledge you can get on the internet, I have decided to compile these companies/services/blogs/resources, so you don’t have to! All these platforms will help you in your music career if you digest and apply what they share and teach. There is something you can learn from every person/company on the list, so make sure to check them all out and see how they can help your music career move forward! Most of your burning questions are highly likely answered in one of them, so don’t miss out. And, most of them are FREE! Here goes:

Show.co (https://www.show.co/) – If you’re looking to: launch a Spotify pre-save campaign, run ads on Spotify or online blogs/magazines, build/reward your email list, then look no further. Show.co is the platform for that.

Playlist Push (https://playlistpush.com/) – Ever wanted to pitch your music and new release to a playlist curator outside of Spotify official playlists? Making sure that it’s submitted to the right genre/curator? Playlist Push helps you do that. It can get quite pricey, depending on the genre of music, but if your music is great and it has a market, you’re very likely to get onto playlists and get your money’s worth.

Ari’s Take (https://aristake.com/) – This man is a legend. After seeing him in a music conference (1st BBC Music Introducing event), I instantly bought his book (How to make it in the new music industry), and it BLEW my mind! I learned a lot about pretty much every sector of the biz, plus he has just released the 2nd version, so go GRAB it now! If you’re an upcoming artist or muso, no matter at what level, you will find what you’re looking for in his website/book. Highly recommended.

Soundbetter (https://soundbetter.com/) – Spotify has recently partnered up with Soundbetter; so you know they’ll be a big player in the biz in the coming years. Simply put, Soundbetter provides its clients with services such as: music production, session singers, mixing/mastering engineers, songwriters/topliners, and session musicians in a very streamlined process (online). So you can have all these entities working on your song, right from your bedroom! Plus, I won’t be surprised if in 2020, they really own this part of the music industry.

Airgigs (https://www.airgigs.com/) – If there was one competitor Soundbetter has, it’s Airgigs. I don’t know much about the platform, but they do exactly the same services for its clients as Soundbetter does. You would have to check which platform suits YOUR needs and requirements. But they do have a good reputation, even though they are not partnered with Spotify (as of yet).

The Unsigned Guide (https://www.theunsignedguide.com/) – TUSG is the UK’s biggest music industry contacts directory, and it will include pretty much all the contacts you’ll need! PS. As a member myself, there are a lot of benefits from using their platform (discounts/free resources, free invites to events, etc.), though the only con, is that some of the parties in their directory are either obsolete or have the wrong contact information.

Facebook Business Manager (https://business.facebook.com/) – Okay, if you aren’t registered within the FB business manager, you’re really missing out! Some of the benefits include: edit your Facebook page, understand your analytics, setup ads (HUGE) both for Instagram/Facebook, see how your ads are doing and what is working/isn’t working, see other artist’s audience data and habits (ssssh, don’t tell anyone).

Sofarsounds (https://www.sofarsounds.com/) – I’m sure you’ve heard of Sofarsounds, but if you haven’t, they basically provide artists a platform to perform their material (intimate gigs in houses usually) to audiences who actually want to discover new music, plus, they PAY! Some notable acts that have performed are: Billies Eillish, YEBBA, Lianne La Havas, LAUV and many more. Get on it.

Bandcamp (https://bandcamp.com/) – This is an amazing platform to not just sell music and merch; you can also provide your audiences/fans a way to pay you a subscription in exchange for what you can offer them. Plus, if you’re looking to network with other musicians, the platform makes it easy to discover possible collaborators for your own project by music genre.

Beatstars (https://www.beatstars.com/) – Ever wondered how Lil Nas X found the beat for ‘Old Town Road’? Look no further, Beatstars is a platform where you can find beats in most genres, with differing licensing types (free/standard/exclusive, etc). Even if you don’t find a beat you’d like to purchase, you can freestyle over the beats and write to them, and purchase when you’re ready (they recently released a free app for that purpose). Finally, if you’re looking to produce and sell some beats of yourself, then I highly recommend using Beatstars, I’ve seen my social media and income grow from using their platform. Check my beat store page out if you’re looking for the best beats in town 😀 (https://jonathanmilanes.beatstars.com/)

Next Big Sound (https://www.nextbigsound.com/) – An amazing platform that boasts to understand the performance and growth of your audience, and fuel strategy. In English, it simply means that it has an advanced analytics tool for artists, to really dig in deep with your online growth and strategy.

Chartmetric (https://www.chartmetric.com/)– Just like Next Big Sound, Chartmetric provides end-to-end music market analytics for advance artist growth strategies. It has a FREE and paid version, but it is worth more than gold if you can use the data you get from these platforms to drive and leverage your career. Try out both platforms and see which suits YOU best (I use both).

Allmusic (https://www.allmusic.com/) – If you want to see information about a particular track/album that you’ve enjoyed, Allmusic provides that information, whether it be the writer, producer or musicians that played on the record. Plus, you can submit credits for your own music (shame on you if you don’t, so please do).

Cymatics (https://cymatics.fm/) – If you’re a producer, this site is clean. From sample packs, midi packs, to free resources and presets. It’s got it all. I personally use their platform, and it took my production the next level! Plus their podcast is a gold mine of amazing information about the music industry, leaning more into music producers, but artists will get something from it too.

Splice – Just like Cymatics, but a bigger beast. Splice provides: sample packs, midi packs, presets, subscription-based VST plugins and everything in between. One thing I love about Splice is the way the samples are highly organized. You’ll definitely find what you need if you know what you’re looking for! Plus, artist and producers that you love probably have their own products and sounds on the platform. Who knows, you might be on it one day!

BBC Introducing (https://www.bbc.co.uk/introducing) – The great equalizer. If you have great music, a brand and story to share, you can upload 2 tracks/month on the BBC music uploader and give your music a chance to not only get discovered by DJs/radio presenters, but get played as well! And with your PRO, get paid along with it! It’s a free platform for any artist, but it is based in the UK, therefore they’ll only play your music if you’re in one of the cities they have a radio station for. Finally, they always have events and platforms to get an upcoming artist to the next stage (performance opportunities, interviews, conferences).

Amazing Radio (https://amazingradio.com/) – An online interactive radio station that lets emerging artists in on the chance of getting played. They accept tracks via amazingtunes.com and their algorithms will cleverly work out what’s popular, and their head of music should take notice and play you. Give it a shot, it’s FREE!

Apple Music for Artists (https://artists.apple.com/) – A free platform to track your streaming data and analytics. Not as in-depth and useful as its competitor (Spotify), but it does the job for basic data.

Spotify for Artists (https://artists.spotify.com/) – If you’re an artist, sign-up to this platform ASAP! They even have a companion app if you’re not on desktop. After you claim your artist profile (you need to have at least one song uploaded on the Spotify platform), you can do things such as: edit your visible Spotify profile (bio, photos, add social links, promote your own playlists), submit to Spotify curators for playlist consideration (make sure there’s a 4-week lead up to it and that you have as much info about the track, and finally, dig deep into your analytics and see info like, when and where people skip your song.

Songtrust (https://www.songtrust.com/) – I’ve only heard about this platform as of late 2019, but they seem to be making waves in the industry. Songtrust is a royalty collection service that streamlines the music publishing administration of 2million+ songs (including yours).

Tunecore Blog (https://www.tunecore.co.uk/blog) – Originally a music distributor, their blog section has useful and insightful advice and tips for upcoming musicians.

CDBaby Blog (https://diymusician.cdbaby.com/) – Same as Tunecore (Distributor), their blog always has useful tips about the current goings of the biz, plus their podcast (CDBaby Podcast is AMAZING), go check them out!

Reverbnation Blog (https://blog.reverbnation.com/) – As overwhelming as the platform itself is, their blog is more focused and will definitely give you the knowledge you’ll need for your music career.

Sonicbids Blog (http://blog.sonicbids.com/) – A platform that helps artists and bands create a website easily, they also provide FREE resources via their blog.

Music Connect Magazine (https://www.musicconnection.com/) – An online print magazine that focuses on the serious stuff (wants/needs of musicians, music tech, industry support services). Their focus is on appealing to: songwriters, producer, studio manager, home recordists, agents, attorneys, publicists, label execs, and musicians.

Music Business Worldwide (https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/) – An information service for the global music industry. If you want to dig deep into the serious music industry news, look no further.

AWAL Blog (https://www.awal.com/blog) – A subsidiary of Kobalt, and a music distributor in its own right, AWAL provides artists FREE music distribution (they take a % of your streaming income though). Their blog is one of my favorites in this list, they are all well thought out and has a high-quality feel to them. Definitely a must for every artist looking to break in the biz.

Digital Music News (https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/) – A highly influential source of news and industry analysis. Digital Music News is the information authority for the music industry and technology executives.

Billboard (https://www.billboard.com/) – The music industry coverage, context, and intel. Check what songs are charting, news, and the latest gossip on your favourite artists.

Burstimo (https://www.burstimo.com/) – A new music marketing agency with an in-house team of digital marketers, publicists, radio pluggers, graphic designers, and video editors. I discovered them and their content via Instagram and they really know what they’re talking about. You can feel how much they care about artists by them giving out FREE advice on their socials on a consistent basis. Defo check them out!

Savvy Musician Academy (https://savvymusicianacademy.com/) – The focus of this platform is to provide the new waves of musicians resources and equip themselves with tactics that the founder (Leah Mchenry) uses herself as an artist, to make a career in the biz. This is done via paid courses, blogs, podcasts, and multiple Facebook group pages. She knows what she’s talking about and I can attest to that myself!

Indepreneur (https://indepreneur.io/) – Indepreneur provides artists and musicians a community to build a business with their music career. It’s a resource and a network you can use to learn to market your music, connect with other creatives and build the right strategy to build and monetize your fan base.

Submithub – I know this platform gets a lot of hate, but there are artists who do seem to find success in it. And it might as well be you. Submithub provides you a platform to send music to curators in an easy and transparent process (submitting).

Soundprise (https://soundprise.com/) – Excuse the self-promotion, but if I was starting my career over; having a platform like Soundprise would have saved me YEARS of wasting time and would have helped me in so many ways develop as an artist. That is why I created it in the first place; to support, inspire and develop the next generation of artists. Soundprise provides FREE resources (articles, e-books, videos and 1-1 coaching directly with me), a selection of high-quality beats + licenses, online music production services, vocal production/editing and finally, the full exclusive music production service (work with me personally with crafting/writing the song from the ground up, to its final stages and working on your branding and release strategy). I highly recommend you shoot us an email so we can discuss any queries you might have about our services, or if you’re in need of a producer.

And that’s it for today. It would take a long time before you can consume all that these platforms and resources have to offer, but I hope you find value in them and use them to actually get your career moving in the direction you want! Bring on 2020!

Here’s to more music and success,

Jonathan Milanes

If you would like to know more about me, or just connect and chat, come say hi (@jonathanmilanes):